


Full Steam Ahead

by aljohnson



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Nightmares, Reunion Fic, Romance, Sea, Ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 13:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13168278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aljohnson/pseuds/aljohnson
Summary: From the 2016 ficathon, before it was deleted earlier this year, I'm reposting this. The prompt was from Firesign23, and was: "Jack arrives in London unannounced, only to find Phryne kissing another man. It's not a misunderstanding."





	Full Steam Ahead

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fire_Sign](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Sign/gifts).



He rang the doorbell and waited. It was raining, of course. It always rained in London, he had been told that.

Eventually, the light went on in the glass above the door and the heavy wooden gateway opened. The light shone out like a beacon. And then it seemed to fade a little, before near blinding him once more. His own fault for arriving at night. He had been too excited to see her.

He was ushered inside. He could not recall who opened the door, but he was suddenly without his trusted overcoat and hat.

He somehow knew to make his way to the open doorway on the port side of the corridor. His stomach lurched as he took the final step.

There was a fire crackling in the grate. But what his eyes focused on chilled him to the bone.

Phryne was kissing Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester. Well, to be accurate, she was romping with him on the hearth rug.

He had plainly been louder than he thought he had. Phryne screamed, and pulled her robe around her. It was the black one, which he suspected was a present from Mr Lin. The Duke looked utterly unabashed.

There was a conversation. It was loud; heated. It ended with Phryne informing him, in no uncertain terms, that she had been joking when she had said ‘come after me’, that had he bothered to contact her, she would have told him that; that she was staying in England, and that Buckingham Palace would shortly announce her engagement to the Duke. The wedding would, naturally, be at Westminster Abbey, in no more than three months’ time. She expected to bear him numerous children. Could Jack kindly please remove himself from her sight and return to the antipodes henceforth. She did not care for him, was not pleased to see him, and would ensure he was escorted from the premises.

~~~~~~~~

Jack awoke with a start as the steamer lurched from side to side. The Mediterranean was rough tonight. The light from Victoria Tower beamed in through the small porthole of his shared cabin before rotating quickly to leave him in darkness. His cabin-mate snored loudly in the bunk beneath him.

Jack was sweating; what if he was making a terrible mistake? What if he had misunderstood her words at the airfield? The fog in his mind; a result of too little sleep and too much sea-sickness, was taking its toll. He reached under his pillow and withdrew his small volume of Rilke poetry. Flicking to the front of the book, he withdrew and unfolded the telegraph that he had carried with him from Melbourne. He barely required the continually rotating beam of light from the lighthouse to illuminate the typing:

Will meet you at Docks STOP Cannot wait to see you STOP Father only man you need to worry about STOP P STOP

Of course, Jack mused, that had been sent three weeks ago. Three weeks was a long time in Phryne’s world. And he still had maybe five days of sailing before he arrived at Southampton. Anything could happen in that time. He returned the wax paper to its storage place, and the book itself to back under his pillow. He tried to fall back to sleep. Had he been properly asleep anyway? He thought not. As he shifted from lying on his back to his side, he curled his arms around his pillow. He hoped his nightmare was merely a figment of his imagination. She would surely not be that cruel? Not the Phryne he knew. Not the Phryne he loved.

**************************************************

The lack of bridges over both the Hamble and the Itchen were a dreadful inconvenience. Phryne had wanted to stand on Stokes Bay Pier and wave to Jack as his ship passed, but even with her excellent driving skills, she could not have beaten him back to the Southampton Docks as well. And she wanted, more than anything, to absolutely ensure that she was there for his disembarkation. And really, when the trains ran directly into the docks, and onto the quays, it could hardly have been more convenient.

So this slightly grotty Dockmans’ café would have to suffice for her to wait out the inevitable shower. Really, why did England have to give quite such a poor account of itself to visitors? She could have waited in the First Class arrivals lounge, but Jack was not travelling First Class, and she wanted to avoid embarrassing him. And really, the dock men were very friendly, especially once you treated them all to mugs of tea and thick buttered toast.

As she sat and slurped her tea, notching her accent down from ‘finishing school’ and throwing in a hint of ‘Collingwood’, she reached into her handbag to read the telegraph she had read and reread a thousand times:

SS Mongolia STOP Docks Southampton October 25th STOP Yes QUERY

*****************************************

Jack had half-expected her to commandeer a small launch and kidnap him from the ship. None of that annoying ‘paperwork’ she so despised. But he needed to have his passport checked and stamped; he didn’t want to risk falling foul of the law once he was here; his credentials were useless now. He hoped that wouldn’t make Phryne think any less of him.

He was as ready as he could be. Whilst on board he had made friends with the staff, and they had now made sure that he was as close as possible to where the second class gangplank would be positioned when they came to rest. He was wearing his overcoat and hat, which were beginning to fail against the relentless onslaught of the rain. So that bit of his nightmare had not been removed from reality. His suitcase gripped in his hand he stood, waiting, as the crowds on the dockside started to notice the imminent arrival.

There was a red hat amongst the crowds of people, and then, there she was. He could see all of her now; she was being helped onto a tea chest by what appeared to be dockworkers. Jack tried not to consider how she had charmed them into helping her. She turned and he could see her scanning the crowds on the ship, looking for him.

Their eyes met, and she jumped up and down excitedly on the tea chest, waving her arms above her head. A beaming smile appeared on her face; he had come after her, and he had made it, all this way.

The customs officers boarded the ship to check the passports for all the passengers. Jack was trying not to look anxious or worried, and refrained from snatching the passport back from the young man who had looked through it and firmly placed a stamp on the second page.

“Welcome to the Gateway to the Empire, Sir. Although I suppose that’s where you’ve come from… Mind your way as you leave Sir, gangplank’s a bit slippery.”

“Thank you” said Jack, stowing the precious document inside his overcoat.

Taking a deep breath, Jack turned, and with one hand gripping his suitcase, and the other the rail of the wooden walkway, Jack made his way from the ship to the solid ground of the dock.

He stopped at the end of the gangplank, placing his suitcase carefully between his feet. He no longer cared about the rain. Turning to the tea chest he looked up.

“Miss Fisher, how delightful to see you again.”

“Jack…” She couldn’t quite believe how breathless she felt; how breathless she sounded. Jack Robinson had turned her head, and she had no idea when it had happened.

She gazed down at him; he really was very handsome, even with some slight stubble. The Times had related that the waters in the Bay of Biscay and the Channel had been terribly rough, and she suspected he had avoided shaving so as not to catch his skin with the blade.

“I believe, Miss Fisher, you were expecting me?”

“I was Jack. I have been. I am.”

The world stopped; just for a moment. The roar from the crowds disappeared as the world narrowed to him and her; them, and no-one else.

Jack placed his hands around her waist and tugged her towards him. Phryne placed one hand on his shoulder, as he lowered her to the ground.

She found her other hand reaching for his face, and allowed herself to run her fingertips over his jawline. He was real; he was really here.

Could you kiss a woman in the middle of Southampton Docks? Would it cause a scandal? Did she want him to kiss her at all? Before Jack could summon up his courage, Phryne was kissing him.

Damn it she was not going to wait anymore. As she saw it, he’d made a romantic overture; then she’d made a romantic overture; then he’d kissed her; and so now it was her turn. Docks be damned.

She brushed her lips against his, relishing the taste of him, the firmness of him, the faint hint of eucalyptus and vegemite. And then he was kissing her back; strong and determined, and as if he’d been asleep and was now awake.

“I had the most terrible nightmares, on the ship.” He said, when they briefly broke for air, their heads remaining bowed towards each other. “I dreamt that you were getting married, to the Duke of Gloucester. I don’t even know how I knew it was him.”

“Oh Jack, Henry’s having an affair…”

“Your father?” Jack was confused. Phryne did that to him.

“No, Henry, the Duke of Gloucester. All of London knows about it. And it’s not with me. She can keep him. I told you; the only man you need to worry about is my father.”

“Why, what’s he done?”

“He annoyed me the whole way here. For some reason mother was delighted to see him. Although their reunion was not quite like this.”

“Less balancing on a tea chest?”

“Something like that.”

“And how are you finding home?”

“I don’t know Jack, I’ll let you know when I get back there. With you.” Running an arm around his waist, she pulled him to her, as they kissed once more.

The world turned again, as the two of them became lost in the crowds teaming down the gangplanks. They were home, at last, in each other’s arms.


End file.
